It looks as though we're going to be getting a poly tunnel this summer. Its seventy something foot long and I want to split it into two smaller tunnels.
We live on a four acre smallholding and my intention is to grow produce for our own use and to sell any surplus.

I've tried to get in touch with our local planning authority but can't get to talk with any of them without putting in an application. I'm fairly certain that I don't need planning permission to erect a tunnel but can't be a 100% certain. Has anyone got any experience of this sort of thing?

from what folk on here have said i think it depends on location and size (location being both the site and the local authority.)

im sure there should be some guidelines from your local planning dept or perhaps national ones it seems daft for them not be be able to tell you if you need pp without applying .there are for things like extensions and conversions.

Nobody bothers applying around here but then it would just be my luck.

If you are a registered agricultural holding & the foundations aren't permanent I don't think you need to worry, but how you get on with your nearest neighbours is as important IMHO.
If they don't object, who's to know.

The only advice I have is to build it with the highest sidewalls that you can afford and get planning approval for. Better for thermal retention, and for airflow, and for not bonking your head on purlins

H Exceptions
 Domestic developments apart from house
extensions, e.g. Garages, Sheds, Fencing,
Small Scale Renewable Schemes
 Individual Affordable Dwellings
 Changes to houses specifically to improve
the welfare / access of disabled people (as
defined in the Town and Country Planning
(Fees for Applications and Deemed
Applications) (Amended) Regulations 1991.
 Work to trees that are subject to Tree
Preservation Orders or within a
Conservation Area (provided they are not
part of a larger scheme)
 Developments by Community Councils and
Community Groups
 Enquiries requesting if planning permission
is required
Free (provided that
it does not involve
more than one
meeting, written
advice or site visit)
and the officer to
decide whether any
of the above is
required

It looks as though we're going to be getting a poly tunnel this summer. Its seventy something foot long and I want to split it into two smaller tunnels.
We live on a four acre smallholding and my intention is to grow produce for our own use and to sell any surplus.

I've tried to get in touch with our local planning authority but can't get to talk with any of them without putting in an application. I'm fairly certain that I don't need planning permission to erect a tunnel but can't be a 100% certain. Has anyone got any experience of this sort of thing?

Doing a bit of reading it looks like you probably will.

If you have it in your garden, you probably won't. If you put it outside the garden, you probably will, because you're eating the produce, so you're actually changing the use, from agricultural to domestic. If you're selling stuff, then you don't need change of use, but it will probably need permission.

If you were larger, you could get it under permitted development, but you'd need to be more than twice the size.

All this from here. It could be baloney, of course, BUT, your council offers free advice, so fill out the form, and check.

 Enquiries requesting if planning permission
is required
Free (provided that
it does not involve
more than one
meeting, written
advice or site visit)
and the officer to
decide whether any
of the above is
required

Lol I love that.

So its free IF they dont have to put it in writing or leave the nice warm office. IE phone them up & they will tell you one thing but when you apply they will have forgotten it & you have no proof.

Ask for it in writing & its going to cost you.

I guess the free advice is worth the paper its not written on.

Oh, try actually getting them to do it. Hard enough when you are paying them.

Having not long ago had a big battle with them I might be a touch biased but they make the incompetent seem like they know what they are doing.